PlayStation Plus Update

Happy (almost) New Year! The PlayStation Plus team is gearing up for another banner year in 2013 as we continue to deliver free games, discounts, and access to events, betas and more to give PlayStation fans the edge when it comes to their gaming lifestyle. This week, we welcome PS3 Game NBA JAM On Fire Edition and PS Vita Game Chronovolt to the Instant Game Collection. You’ll also find deeper discounts with the last week of the PSN Holiday Sale.

Important note: We’ll be updating the PlayStation Store today (Monday, 12/31) due to the New Year holiday. Therefore, this Plus update will be live later today when the update has published.

Don’t have PlayStation Plus? Go to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or PS Vita or click here to get access.

December 31st PlayStation Plus Update

NBA JAM On Fire Edition (PS3)

Free for Plus members

You don’t have to be a basketball nut to have a blast with this one. If you’ve played NBA JAM before, you know it’s all about fast-paced arcade-style basketball action. Of course it features all your favorite NBA players and legends, but with all the fun and irreverence that has hooked countless gamers and tons of trash-talking multiplayer sessions. Crazy modes, secret teams, and rock-solid online play make this a great addition to your collection. Take a look at the video above to check out a match up in the game in the classic ‘big head’ mode, and play it yourself to see why IGN.com gave it a 9 out 10.

Chronovolt (PS Vita)

Free for Plus members

Chronovolt is a puzzle-platformer with steampunk influences where players control the Chronosphere, a discovery that contains the energy that powers time. You’ll guide it through levels using all of the PS Vita’s controls including tilt, the analog sticks, and rear-touch to have a completely unique experience. Not to mention that by collecting power-ups known as Chronovolts, players are able to manipulate time, such as rewinding the game to save yourself from a fall that would have otherwise resulted in death. Set in three distinct worlds including a lush Mayan world, a snow-covered Chinese landscape, and a futuristic setting; PS Vita gamers will find plenty to love with Chronovolt.

PSN Holiday Essentials Sale (Week 3)

Various discounts for Plus members

The PSN Holiday Essentials wraps up this week with great deals on games you might have missed out on. Notables include the unique and completely charming Tokyo Jungle, Sound Shapes, and the remastered HD version of Shadow of the Colossus. Take a look at the full breakdown below:

As the last Plus post from 2012, I also want to extend a sincere thank you to all those who leave their feedback week to week. Whether you’re excited about an update, or giving your feedback about what you prefer, it’s always great to chat with you all. With PlayStation fans like you guys, I’m looking forward to an awesome 2013, and I hope you all will continue to bring the feedback; positive or critical.

We’ll be back next week as usual, but make sure you make your voice heard in the comments below, and also make sure to vote in the polls. You can also delve into the PlayStation Community Forums in the PS Plus space to continue chatting about Plus, or find other great sub-forums to participate in and build your PlayStation community cred. See you in the comments!

The funniest thing about the NA vs. EU disparity is that right in the middle of the top of EVERY WEBPAGE on the US blog it says: Visit Playstation.blog.EU and it’s a clickable link. you don’t have to use google or add another bookmark or do any legwork, the NA blog supplies the link for you so we can see how bad PS+ has been compared to the EU PS+ over the past few months.

My PS+ expires in a few days. I’ve had it since the first week 2 years ago but won’ t be renewing unless I see a 1/2 off sale somewhere. At least the EU offered 25% off last month. I’ll just keep on playing Jetpack Joyride which was free, forever, for everybody.

@ rasenganchris2 – I completely agree. The US Plus service is not worth the price tag, and not only is the EU Plus service better, they even offered a discount on the actual service. US needs a 25% discount and soon, or there will be a lot of members going over to the other side, me included.

I have been subscribed the day it was released, playstation + that is.

I have to say the content we have been getting lately is pretty sub par, the bar needs to be raised for the service starting today.

There have been amazing months, and pretty bad months.

PSV+ started out great but has been lackluster from it’s initial release. Where is the full release games, we do not want games like cronovolt.

Where are playstation 3 releases like Red Dead Redemption, GT5, Castlevania: LOS, Uncharted games, God of war games, Dead space, LA Noire. I have all these titles and these are great games that should be on playstation+, Sony exclusives should be #1 on the playstation+ list, this should be a given.

Word of mouth is a very powerful thing, it’s something that is heavily relied on with the Sony family, do you want people to speak amazing things or poor things?

What if the system changed to let the community choose from a choice of 3 games, 2 of them would become the games for the month, with different categories to choose from, RPG / Shooter / Platform *example*.
Have it as a test phase for a month or two, nothing permanent & make it known this is a test phase to see if it is taken well.

Step up the service, I’m seeing too many people unhappy about it to continue.
I’ll keep with PS+, not everyone will.

That “Pick X games from a selection of Y games” model would not work because it would require making many more deals with publishers than they do right now. That would easily cost more money and Sony would quickly run out of games to add to the service.

“Step up the service, I’m seeing too many people unhappy about it to continue.”
The service is pretty impressive as it is. They’re constantly offering 4 to 5 PS3/PSN titles per month when they only promise 3. Most of the games have a 70-80 average rating on Metacritic. People expect to see $20+ retail games every week but forget that they’re paying $50/year for PS+. That is the definition of entitled. Sure, Europe gets those kinds of games, but that’s a different region. I wish I could get those games, but I’m more amazed than disappointed that SCEE is able to offer those games.

Don’t forget that SCEA gave us Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition this month. The game is way too big at 18GB, but I think it’s a positive sign of what’s to come in the next months.

I’m talking Quality, not Quantity. I do not call NBA jam quality sorry. I do not expect to see 20+ retail games, but I do feel less is more, except when the quality of less is not up to par. Payday the heist is a great game, I bought it day one and was pleased to see it on + because more people would be able to play it.

Well looks like my subscription ran out just before things got really bad. I’ll renew once things start looking up again. These games are not what we want. I wish there was a way to get the EU version.

All you complaining, make sure you don’t renew to show how unhappy you are. I mean at about $4/month if you subscribe for a year, I agree this is trash! For shame, Sony, for shame! How dare you give us all these games when we are paying $4/month!

Its an insult, no not an insult, its a spit in the face! We deserve the newest games for free AT LEAST once a week, nothing less will suffice!

I repeat, we demand AAA title after AAA title!

lol.

In all seriousness, put your money with your mouth is and don’t renew if you are so unsatisfied. I personally think I’m paying for the cloud storage/auto updates (I mean I’m sure as hell am not whining over a meager ~$4/month) and anything else is a bonus.

I hope there are some new posts soon. All this repetitive rehashed fussing and fighting isn’t entertaining enough.

Happy New Year to everyone in the Playstation nation, to the chronic complainers and the chronic complainers about the chronic complainers and the majority of us who are happy to be Playstation gamers and think Plus is a good value for the auto updates and cloud saves alone.

And especially to Uncle Morgan, whose tolerance of some really dooshbaggy slurs has been remarkable this past year.

I voted for Chronovolt Free for Plus Members in the poll. Unfortunately that was before I actually played the game, it’s horrible! The trailer I had seen and it looked good. After the first few levels it seems to get really difficult to get passed this 1 section that has to be glitched or just way too difficult. I take back the vote and would like to choose NBA Jam On Fire Edition Free for Plus Members. That was the best addition this week. I had wanted this game a few months ago when it was on sale but I missed the sale by 1 day (I did buy many other games during that sale). PSN Holiday Sales in the poll I did not choose because I already own all the games from the list that I already want. The other games I do not have on that list I am not interested in. The first week of sales was the best, the 2nd week had some good deals. I purposely held off buying anything at all during these 3 weeks of sales because I blew so much cash during the October & November PSN Credit Deal offers (spend $XXX.XX get $XX.XX free PSN credit). About half the games I bought during that sale were hugely discounted just a few weeks later or Free!

Since I got burned so bad blowing that much cash on PSN those months just to have them hugely discounted or free a few weeks later was just too big of a blow to even think of supporting PSN by purchasing anything during these 3 weeks of sales. Especially since some of them were really great deals. Still just bitter from the October/November promotions. I have learned not to fall for the October/November promos again, the games I want will just be discounted or free around X-mas. I will patiently wait now for these discounted games to be free on PS+ in a couple weeks or months. It seems that’s how it works. Full price new releases on PSN for a couple weeks or 1-3 months, then greatly discounted or free on PS+.

You should really consider offering brand new PSN games either free or discounted for PS+ members for the launch week. I mean, I’d like to think PS+ subscribers are the biggest fans of PlayStation? That way if they are free or price dropped a few weeks or months later we don’t feel burned paying full price week one, plus having a PS+ subscription to boot. What’s the point of PS+ if we already own the games from launch at full price? I know there are other benefits of PS+ that I use a lot but it’s really about the games here, isn’t it?

@saab01 – on all sports games i’ve ever played including, live, madden, and 2k, the rosters stay updated throughout the trade deadline of that season, it was brought out in 2011, although it doesn’t have all the people on the roster on the game it’s actually is up to par on the update. But as for as your inquire about the worst team beating the best team. it’s only 2 on 2 basketball with the best 5 or 6 players of that team on the roster and not really a team effort besides the oops. it’s about how you play it, shoving when you need to, dunking, etc. So unless you completely don’t know how to play your cards right in it then of course you’ll either get bet or win if you do play them. I beating down numerous teams already with the nuggets alone just based off of gallinari’s three point capability and height so he doesn’t get blocked often.

I actually doubted NBA JAM, I would of never of spent the money to play it but its nice to just wonder on a arcade style game once in a while, the Road Trip is going to be time consuming to complete. This wasn’t a great update but its fair.

@badpancho – Is that true? their getting that in Jan.? Well then We got Bioshock 2, that game was terrible, GCI – I’m not sure I know the beta was locked in but I think they gave us that for free when I didn’t have the sub. Also jet set radio yeah that was given too already for US. So maybe we will recieve the mirror of their games. hmph or a couple at least.

Exactly. We already have GCI, Bioshock 2, and JSR. Mortal Kombat is great, but so many people are complaining on the blog about getting so many fighting games. We’ve only gotten 3 in 6 months. Guardians of Middle Earth looks good, but it’s free too soon in Europe. It came out only a month ago. Pinball Arcade looks like a good handheld game.

@Crusher201- seriously? sense i’ve been plus, I’ve seen 4 or 5 arcade fighting run threw games (like blood rayne and scott pilgrin. outlanders kind of like it and the 1v1 street fighter & the other one King of fighters?

@482 – By “fighting games” he means the likes of Street Fighter and King of Fighters. Scott Pilgrim and Double Dragon Neo are what we call “beat’em ups”. May look the same if you don’t like either, but they play very differently.

Here’s hoping for next week being better. Thankful X-mas was here and got games to cover the lack of interesting titles for plus lately. Did re-up another year of Plus though just to see if they do start to bring their game this year.

@DEAD_RIKIMARU – well my bad on that one, it technically isn’t a fighting game but it kind of still is, as for beat em up. no official game category I can find. They’re listed on Action games according to GameStop. But thinking about it you are fighting your way through it are you not? So it could be taken as a fighter game seeing how your punching, kicking, picking objects up to use them. It’s like a street fight to get to your destination. However those never really interested me to play much of it. Only 2 or 3 have ever interested me to play it. Jackie Chan’s video game and I kind of forget the other two it’s been years.

To be honest there hasn’t been much to get excited about since June, which when I signed up.
I got a lot of value in June… but since then

The only thing that was somewhat worth it was RE5 Gold. Though I already owned the retail, non gold, on disk.
So it wasn’t *that* exciting.

I’m glad I got my 50$ worth when I signed up in June, with the games that where in the IGC back then.
So I don’t feel cheated.

However if things continue like this I will probably not renew next June, unless the next 6 months actually bring something worthwhile.

The way I figure… 50$ can actually buy quite a few cheap old games at places like Gamestop. Plus then I actually
– get to pick the games I pay for so I actually get games I actually want.
– they don’t expire.

So why gamble 50$ on plus one year in advance when chances are most of the games that will actually come up will probably fall into one of two groups:
– already have them
– I don’t care for them

Seems better to let the sub expire and then wait and watch what gets released into IGC until such time that I can honestly feel the IGC is worth at least 50$.

On the podcast they stated something about “Capture the flag” on plus next week not sure about this game or even if its really confirmed, haven’t really listened in to many of the blogcast shows but starting to listen in now So can anyone confirm this game? I tried looking it up couldn’t really find anything other than references to a game mode in warhawk, CoD, and starhawk. Any clues or anything statements about this? I think it was 18 minutes into the podcast.

you know its hilarious how many ps+ subscribers are complaing about the quality of games na gets compared to eu and those few brownies that come on here here and complain about our gripes calling us names and so fourth you know if youre so happy with it thats fine enjoy it and mind your buissness shut up stop being a brownie and git off sonys sac really theres no nutritional value furthermore these past weeks have been really sucky im not letting my sub run out i still believe that morgan and his team will redeem this matter to our surprise amd i think it was a bad idea to add eu blog here thats just adding to the fire well hoping the best for 2013 have an awesome new year !